The intellectual alliance of Athens with Rome panned the spotlight of Western history from Greece to the Roman world. The radiance of Hellenistic culture was passing, but many felt its powerful influence as it illuminated cultures fromSpaintoChina. Social strata sharply divided the Roman republic’s people, as the abundant use of money in commerce enabled people […]
The Old World, a world in which a few distinctive civilizations existed autonomously in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Crete, sounded the first crescendo in the rhythm of civilization, but by the beginning of the first millennium BC the world was entering a new stanza. Increasing prosperity made people aware of more desires. Instead of working to […]
From the turmoil of Akkadian-occupied Sumeria departed a Semitic tribe of Jews who, a millennia later, became a minor power in ancient Palestine. But those Jewish religious seeds would grow to become the most important religious, moral, and philosophic influence in western civilization. Previous religions added and deleted gods into and from their pantheon to […]
Out of the banks of the riverNilerose a civilization descending from none other nor fathering none later, but exhibiting an endurance never since repeated. The 600-mile long Nile river in northern Africa was isolated enough from the civilizations ofMesopotamiato develop its own unique culture and religion. Egyptians built a profoundly religious civilization that would last […]
Approximately 6000 years ago, people living in clay-walled cities along the banks of the southern end of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers established the first society to progress beyond the Stone Age. They formed the first empire. A number of times before this, civilizations in other parts of the world may have briefly flourished and […]
The transition from the Stone Age to early civilization was marked by the domestication of animals, the manufacture of pottery and cloth, and many other advances that let humans begin to win control over their environment. These changes, called the Neolithic Revolution, occurred in various places around the world between 10,000 and 3000 BC. Central […]
Long before the dawn of civilization, a lack of language skills prevented people from putting original ideas together and to contemplate the world around them. For hundreds of thousands of years, actions were driven primarily by instinct. Their sphere of thought did not go beyond their immediate needs. When they were hungry, they searched for […]
The myriad of religions practiced throughout history reveal how man’s perception of God has evolved to adapt to his changing world. His characterization of God differs with each successive society. Various views of gods and the evolution of religious beliefs have paralleled the development of civilized man, from early primordial man’s image of fierce animal-like […]
